


every soul a star

by tinybox



Series: Side Effects May Vary [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-11-19 15:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18137291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinybox/pseuds/tinybox
Summary: Just because you know how it ends doesn't mean that everything before that isn't worth knowing.An expansion on the chapters from diamonds and dust (gold and rust) that featured the six fallen humans.(note: reading the other fic is not required, will contain chapters from it. This is also a way to organize the stories.)





	1. rise up and take a stand (bravery soul)

Louis' mom used to be a boxer. "Nothing fancy, nothing fancy," she'd say, "I never really made it that far in my career to be considered a true pro."

To eight year old Louis, however, this makes his mom basically a superhero in disguise. 

 

"I wanna be a boxer when I grow up!" he exclaims loudly over breakfast. "Can I take boxing classes?"

"Are you sure?" his mom asks, her dark eyes half-closed in contemplation. "It would mean a lot of training."

Louis nods furiously. "I want to be strong just like you!"

His older sister groans over a bowl of Marshmallow Blast Sugar Supreme Puffs. "It's too early to be this excited," she complains, her head coming to rest on the dining room table.

 Reaching out, Louis dunks the end of Aggie's braid into the cereal bowl, and leaves it there to soak. Pulling her hair out of the milk, she swats at him. "You butthole!" she shouts. "Mom!"

"Keep it down to a low rumble," their dad says from behind his newspaper; the headline reading 'WW3 MAIL CARRIER SNAILS PROVE INEFFECTIVE IN COMBAT.'

Aggie scowls, baring her teeth at her brother, while Louis sticks his tongue out at her with a quiet but triumphant "nyeeeh!"

 

His mom enrolls him in a beginners class. Just like she said, boxing is a lot of hard work.

Their instructor, a balding man with bulging arm muscles, is very patient with all of his students, though. "It's okay to make mistakes," Mr. Sanchez says, "you are still learning. Mistakes are to be expected and accepted, because they encourage us to become better."

There's about twelve students in the entire class, the age range between seven and ten. About a half of the students are his age, but he's the tallest out of all of them, and just barely makes it into another weight class, something he brags about at home until Aggie, fed up with all his boasting, noogies Louis until he agrees to stop 'being such a brat.'

 

"There are eight characteristics that make a good boxer; quickness, punching accuracy, punching power, defense, conditioning, discipline, guts, and intelligence." 

All twelve of them are sitting on the large blue mat as their teacher stands in front of them, wearing his usual bright green jumpsuit.

In the back, a kid raises their hand, but speaks without being prompted first. "How come you need to be smart to fight?"

"Good question, Rodger, but make sure that next time you wait until I call on you. Pro boxers are usually thinking four or five moves ahead when they fight, which requires a lot of strategy and planning.

Skilled boxers know that a fight is about employing their strengths against their opponent's weaknesses, and that means you need to understand their fighting style as well as predict what they will do in the ring. Boxing isn't just about brawn, it's also about using your brain as well."

 

At home, he practices on a old training dummy his mom used for when she was a beginner. "When did you start boxing, Mom?" he asks her after she shows him how to punch correctly. 

("Mind you," she'd said, "don't use this until the professor teaches you guys how to properly use it.")

She considers the question. "A bit older than you," she finally says, "I think maybe ten or eleven. But I'd been watching my older brothers practice since I was about five, so that gave me a little bit of an advantage when I first started out."

Running a hand over her shaved head, she admits, "That advantage didn't last long, though. Actually, I was kind of arrogant when I first started. Thought I knew everything about boxing. It wasn't until I started taking intermediate classes did I realize how wrong I was." 

Flicking on the forehead, she says, "Try not to be like that, Lulu," her voice teasing as she using his much hated nickname.

"Moooooommmm!" Louis cries, face burning. "What if someone hears?"

"There's no one around except me and you and Bob."

(Bob is the name of their training dummy.)

Louis punches Bob lightly. "You better not tell anyone," he says, scowling fiercely.

Bob remains silent.

"Good."

His mom hides her growing mirth underneath a shaking hand. 

 

"This is the basic boxing stance," Mr. Sanchez says, demonstrating. "See how I'm standing? The first thing I want you you to try is the leg stance, because that's one of the more important parts. Forget about everything else for a second. Everyone stand up, alright?"

The class stands up, some leaping to their feet, while others reluctantly push themselves up off the ground. 

"This is what we call a toe-heel line. I marked some lines out, I want everyone to stand on the taped lines. Place your left foot ahead of your right foot. Try and keep your weight even on both feet. Don't lean too much on your front foot or your left foot. Imagine that you're standing on a surfboard which is balanced on one of those exercise balls."

Walking around, he corrects some stances while praising the ones who manage to get a close enough resemblance, still offering advice to everyone. 

"Good job, guys!" he beams. "When you guys get home I want you to try practicing this stance at least once a day. It's okay if you can't remember the entire pose." 

He gives them all a thumbs up. 

 

He lost the match. He was so close, too. If only he hadn't made that  _stupid_  mistake. Louis hits the dummy over and over again, each hit becoming sloppier and more erratic. "Stupid, stupid stupid," he mutters each time he strikes.

His knuckles are bruised by the time his sister comes out, chewing thoughtfully on a tuna fish sandwich. "Hey," Aggie comments, standing a few feet away, "you know if mom were here she would get mad at you for pummeling that dummy of yours to death. What did you call him, anyways? Bert? I thought mom said you shouldn't punch like that."

"Go away," he warns, both his fist clenching up unconsciously, "you don't know anything about boxing anyway, stupid-head!"

There's a long pause. "Alright," Aggie says. "Dad says to tell you that he made dinner. Chicken nuggets. Come in whenever. Or don't. "

She stomps across the backyard, slamming the screen door behind her. Their dad shouts a muffled, "Don't slam the door!"

Louis feels even worse than he had been before. Not only is he stupid, he thinks, but also an awful brother as well.

 

"Why did you quit boxing?", nine year old Louis asks his mom while helping her make dinner. She slices the carrots slowly before dumping them into the large stove pot. Louis peels the potatoes carefully; after many finger cuts, he learned it's better not to peel too quickly.

"I guess I got tired," she says, pouring in some beef broth, "got hit too many times, and I wasn't good enough to go any higher." Stirring the mixture together, she asks him to get out the peas.

"But why?"

"Why I need you to get the peas, or why I got tired of boxing?" she teases. Placing the bag of peas on the counter, Louis groans.

"Mooooommmmm! You know what I mean!"

She chuckles softly. "Sometimes, life happens, and things become more important as you grow older. It was a lot of things that made me decide not to try being a pro boxer. I knew my own limits."

"But, mom, I thought you said to never give up?" he asks, now confused.

"Heh, yeah. I did say that. And it's true. But there are times when you need to look at a situation and think things through. Know your limitations, and accept them by focusing on what you can do instead."

"I don't get it. I'm no quitter! I'm going to be the best boxer there is, believe it!"

"Well, alright then, pro boxer, can you pass me those potatoes? Good job at peeling them, by the way."

"Okay." 

 

When the teachers hand back their quizzes and tests, his are usually the ones marked all the way down with a thick red marker. 

(A string of cross marks, a line of  _wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong_ one after the other.)

"Although," his primary teacher once sighs, "I should have expected this with after teaching that sister of yours."

Louis, sitting in the middle of the class, could hear mocking giggles from every direction at once, but he keeps his head up high, staring down the teacher furiously. 

_I won't back down without a fight._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All my boxing knowledge came from internet research session, so there will probably be some errors.  
> Will be happy to change anything if it turns out to be super wrong, but I doubt people will be reading this for boxing lessons.


	2. keep your head held high (justice soul)

_My head hurts real bad._

Casey wakes up with a pounding in her brain like someone just punched her right in the noggin'.

She's never been into a real fight before, but she imagines this is what a punch must feel like. Only this punch is over her entire body, 'cause now everything is starting to hurt real bad. Slowly, she opens her eyes.

***You are lying in a bed of yellow flowers, the very same ones that broke your fall.**

_Hello, weird voice! Are you a ghost?_

***No one responds.**

_You're weird. Now that I think about it, you sound like a kid! Like me!_

***You decide to move on.**

_Sheesh. Wait! James!_

"Jaaaaaammmmmeeeessss! Are you there? JAMES, I'M NOT DEAD SO DON'T WORRY I'LL GET OUT AND GET HELP!" she bellows upwards at the hole in the ceiling, now standing up. The pain has already started to go away. 

***Nothing but silence in reply. Whoever you are shouting at does not hear you.**

_Do you think I could climb my way back up?_

***You consider climbing the wall, but decide against it.**

_Imma try it._

 

A few attempts later leave Casey with large scrapes on her knees and no real progress made. She sighs mournfully. 

_Okay, fine, you win this round._

Since going up is apparently out of the question (for now), the only way to go is forward. Picking up her trusty hat, she jams it onto her head; the antique pistol is still in the satchel around her hip. Grandpappy said that she could only borrow his own gun that didn't work if she didn't lose it or treat it like a toy. 

And Casey is the most responsible person in the entire universe, except for maybe James, who never loses _anything_. 

Even though it's a cave, parts of it don't look cave-like. More like ancient ruins of some lost underground city. Passing by a patch of grass, she's suddenly stopped by a cheerful voice. 

"Howdy! I'm..Flowey! Flowey the flower."

Turning around, she sees a small golden flower with a  _face_. "Woah," she breathes, "are you a mutant?"

The yellow flower looks annoyed now. "I'm sorry!" she quickly blurts out. "I didn't mean to be rude! Sometimes I say stuff without thinking, and I'm trying to fix that but sometimes I slip up and I'm really sorry-"

"That's okay!" Flowey says, expression cheerful. "This must be very strange to you right now. I think I can help you out a bit, if you want?"

She nods furiously. 

There's a tugging sensation, and then...

"Woah! Is that my heart? Why's it yellow? How did you do that? Am I gonna die? Please Mr. Flowey I'm sorry for bein' rude!"

"No, silly!" Flowey says, sticking their tongue out at her. "That's your SOUL. Wait, don't poke it-"

Too late. Curious as always, Casey prods her soul with one hand. "That felt weird," she remarks.

"Anyway, so this is me?"

"Yep!"

"What about you? I bet you have a cooler one. Is it yellow like mine? Then we could be in a secret club and have secret handshakes-wait, you don't have hands, so-"

***Flowey burrows themselves underneath the dirt, and is no longer visible.**


	3. *those i fight i do not hate (perseverance soul)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anything marked with a * is from the other fic i wrote, but there will be new chapters as well.

"King Asgore!"

A Royal Guard burst in through the door, "I'm sorry to bother you, but..." The monster shuffles their feet nervously. Asgore looks up from his cup of tea, and smiles warmly. 

"Are you quite alright?"

The guard seems to get their bearings. "We..we've brought the human here. They just...they just turned themselves in. Do you..do you want me to bring them here?"

"...yes, bring them here. Ask them...if they would mind sharing a cup of tea."

The guard nods. "Yes sir!" they say, their arm raised in a sharp salute. 

When the guard leaves, Asgore considers boiling a new pot of tea, but decides against it. 

His reflection looks wobbly and warped in the mug's reflection.

He takes a sip, and tastes nothing but ashes.

 

This is what the Royal Guard knows:

1.) The human had first been spotted about six months ago, though it's likely they've been in the Underground longer than that.

2.) Until several days ago, they'd never attacked anyone.

 

_"You're the human everyone's been talking about! When I catch you, they'll make me captain of the Royal Guard for sure!"_

 

There's a knock at the door. "Come in," Asgore calls, and the door slowly opens, revealing the figure of a human child almost completely covered in layers of drying mud. He can see the outlines of clothes underneath the mud, and the child's face is bare of mud, as well as their hands and feet.

"Child! Have the guards mistreated you in any way?" Asgore asks, his voice soft. The child shakes their head. 

"No, I did it myself." 

"Why-"

"Easier to hide. Camouflage."

Now that he looks at the child more closely, he can see how the layer of mud would conceal them in an area like the Waterfall. 

"Have you eaten at all since them?" 

Another shrug. "Didn't buy anything 'cept at the Ruins. They had a bake sale. Mostly I went looking in the dump when no one else was there. Even if there were people there, I hid so they couldn't find me. Can I have some tea?"

Pushing another mug across the table, Asgore does his best to smile warmly at the child. They look at the table, then him, before crossing over and grabbing the mug. Some of the mud flakes off onto the floor. The child takes a small sip.

"It's good." Taking another sip, the child continues with, "Darwin."

"Pardon?"

"I'm Darwin."

Pause.

"Like the scientist." 

Darwin's smile droops. "...it's okay, I know you're mad at me. You should be."

"Child..."

Darwin raises his chin defiantly. "I killed them, and you know it. 'veryone knows it. 'n I hurt the other one real bad."

Asgore  **checks** Darwin for the first time. 

**Darwin**

**LV: 3  HP: 15/20**

  ***...**

"Child, do you know why we were searching for you?" Asgore asks, dread in his soul. He's not sure what would be worse; Darwin turning himself knowing his fate, or Darwin turning himself in while ignorant of what would come.

Darwin doesn't answer. "They say you have a garden. Can I see?" He holds his hand out.

"...That would be...lovely."

Standing up, Asgore takes the small hand in his much larger one. "Do you like flowers?"

The boy nods. "Uh-huh."

The two of them head out into the garden together, hand in hand.


	4. *if I had to perish twice (patience soul)

For most children, a day off from school is the perfect opportunity to play with friends.

Evergreen, however, has always been a bit of a loner, preferring to spend her time exploring the forest around Snowdin instead. The air feels cool and crisp against her whiskers, and the familiar smell of pine comforts her. Walking along, she pokes each snowpoff she sees, delighting in the way they collapse, feeling proud for making the path easier to walk on.

Then she spots a much larger snowpoff. It looks more like a snowlump, but even bigger, almost about her height lay down.

Walking up to it, she gives it an experimental poke. Her paw touches something that isn't snow, something soft yet firm. "Wah!" she cries, leaping back as whatever it is moves slightly. When nothing else happens, she creeps forward and begins brushing off the snow.

Maybe it's a reactivated puzzle?

It's not a puzzle. To her horror, she sees a kid laying on their back in the snow, barely moving, breaths so shallow she can hardly see them at all.

 

"Mama! Mama!" Evergreen calls frantically, bursting indoors, slamming the door with a clatter behind her.

Her mother, sitting on the sofa with the newspaper, looks up, and starts to scold her for slamming the door, as well as tracking snow into the house, but, seeing her daughter's frantic expression, stops her mid-scold. Rushing towards Evergreen, she scoops her up in her arms.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?" She asks worriedly, scanning her daughter for injuries.

Evergreen wriggles in her mother's grasp until she is put down. "Mama, there's a kid! In the snow! They're not moving!" Grabbing her medical kit, Pip tells her daughter in a firm voice, "Lead me to them."

When they arrive at the spot, she sees the child and is stunned by the fact they haven't already dusted yet. Hurriedly, she checks them. Cody LV 1 HP 2/15

Cradling the young child in her arms, Pip rushes home with Evergreen close behind, snow flying with each running step. The return seems to take hours, but finally they're inside.

Rushing to the living room, Pip tells Evergreen to fetch some Sea Tea, while she warms up the child. T

hough she recoils at the idea of invading the child's privacy, their survival came first. Stripping them of their clothes, she starts rubbing them with a towel. The child, still lying in her arms, whimpers slightly. Their hand slowly reaches up before falling flat again.

Evergreen hurries back with Sea Tea. "Okay," Pip says, "we'll need to make sure they get some into their system." Carefully, she spoonfuls drops of Sea Tea into the child's mouth, most of which ends up dribbling out. But some of the tea does seem to be working, because their HP is slowly crawling back up. She checks them again, and is relieved to see that their HP is now five, much higher than it was before.

The child is no longer still, though their movements are sluggish it's better then they were before. Wrapping the child in blankets, she settles in front of the fire. Now that young Cody's in a better shape, their soul can be pulled out safely for examination.

"..."

"Mama?"

Their soul...it's wrong. The whole thing is saturated a pale blue color, and it's upside-down to boot. No...she realizes, their soul isn't wrong, because this is...

"This is a human," she breathes, starting down at the child, whose soul has already retreated.

"Mama?" Evergreen asks once more, voice shaking with fear, paws clutching each other. She's still wearing her winter gear, despite the warmth of the house.

Mentally shaking herself, Pip responds, "No matter. Evergreen, I need you to make up the guest bedroom for me. First, take off the coat, it looks like you're boiling alive in there."

Shedding her coat and hat, Evergreen leaves them in a heap as she runs off.

"She always does this," Pip find herself fondly saying to the unconscious child.

They stir, mumble out what might be the word mom, before falling back unconscious.

 

For hours, the child writhes in bed, burning with fever yet still shaking uncontrollably. All she can do is press cold rags against their head and give them spoonfuls of soup, and hope the sickness will soon pass.

As time goes by, she find herself humming old lullabies she hadn't sung since Evergreen was a baby, rubbing soothing circles on their palm with her paws.

At first, their hand is lax, but then it clutches her wrist with a tight grip. "Oh, little one," she breathes, "you're certainly a survivor."

Three days later, the fever begins to clear. By the fifth day, the child is able to sit up without assistance, and is now beginning to be fully aware of their surroundings. On the sixth day, when Evergreen's mother is out shopping, she approaches the room cautiously.

Peering around the door, she sees the human. Just to be sure, she asks, "You're a human, right?"

The kid startles, before nodding their head. "Yes," they whisper. They don't look scary, or even dangerous, huddled in the guest bed, propped up with pillows and nestled among layers of thick blankets. They look sickly, their face pale and thin, with dark circles under their eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asks dubiously.

The kid smiles weakly. "I'm sure. Wanna see my soul? I might need some help though."

"Mama will get mad at me. She says you need to rest, and I'm supposed to make sure you don't do anything," Evergreen informs them, her voice more confident.

"Okay."

"Can you show me when you get better?" The human coughs a little before saying, "Yeah, I can."

Creeping closer to the bed, she asks, "Do humans eat monsters?" This sets the other kid in a fit of laughter that ends in more coughs.

"Do monsters eat humans?" they ask back, giggling when Evergreen instantly recoils.

"Ewwwwww! That's gross!"

This time, both of them giggle.

Clambering onto the end of the big bed, Evergreen regards the human. They're kind of funny looking, she thinks. For one thing, they don't have fur, scales, or feathers; their face is flattened with only their smallish nose sticking out. Do all humans look like this?

"All monsters are made of magic, right?" the human asks quietly, staring at their hands twisting together on the bed sheet. Evergreen, who's not a good student at school and rarely is called to explain anything, slightly puffs up as she responds with, yes monsters are made of magic.

"Then what's magic made of?"

"Ummmm..." Still riding off the giddiness of being able to teach someone something, she quickly replied with, "Magic! Magic is made of magic!" Before the human can interrupt, she quickly asks, "What about humans? What are you made of?"

The human shrugs. "Guts and organs and stuff. Mostly water." "Water? Really? Like the kind you drink?" "I guess so." "Weeeeeiiiirrrdd. But you still have a soul, right? My teacher said that souls are made of magic."

More coughs.

"I dunno." They're starting to sound tired.

Crawling up to them, Evergreen pokes them on their cheek gently. "My name's Evergreen," she informs the human.

"...'m Cody." A long pause. "C'n you stay?" Cody yawns, eyelids drooping.

Carefully, she slides under the covers next to Cody, leaving a space between them. "Can...you tell me a story?"

 

**The Human and the Monster**

**by Evergreen**

Once upon a time there was a monster who was super cool and had lots of friends because they were cool. The monster lived by themselves in a big house and was in charge of everything there so they never had bedtimes and didn't have to eat gross food.

One day they were walking in the forest when they saw a human. "Hello human," the monster said and the human was happy to see them. "I'm lost," said the human, "I've been walking for ten bazillion hours and I can't find my way out. Can you help me?"

The monster said yes, because they liked helping people in need, no matter who they were. They lead the human through the forest. But when they reached the monster's house they saw there was now a giant river in front of it. "Oh no," the monster said, "I can't swim." So the human said "I will help you" and they picked the monster up and carried them across the river. Then the two of them lived together and were best friends forever.

**The End**


	5. you did not die in vain, but for a cause you never claimed (green soul)

"My sister disappeared when I was five," gabriel tells me. "She was ten at the time, I think. My mom is still waiting for her to come back, but my dad...he hasn't been the same since. It was like I lost him along with my sister."

"...i'm sorry."

"It's okay. Not your fault. It just...when you guys came out of the mountain it brought back memories...I guess some things never leave you."

"uh...not to be insensitive, but what happened to her?"

"We went camping, and both of us were playing when I tripped and fell. I started crying, and mom scolded Ariel for not watching me more carefully. Ariel stormed off. We never saw her again. I thought she must have died on Mount Ebott, but maybe she's still alive out there somewhere."

"You know, sometimes hope is all we have left to go on."

"..."

i look at my feet, too much of a coward to tell him the truth. that's she's gone, and _it's all my fault_. 

 

i remember when paps brought the human home with him. 

_"SANS! LOOK! I FOUND A FRIEND!" Slamming the door open with all his might, Papyrus calls out eagerly, "THEY SAID THEY LIKE BUILDING SNOW MONSTERS TOO!"_

they were about the same height, although she was a couple years older than my bro. 

this was the first time i'd ever seen a human, but even then i knew what they looked like.

funny coincidence, huh? sometimes i wonder what would have happened if i hadn't known what they were. probably not much, now that i think about it, but...

_at the time, i'd been napping on the couch. hearing pap, i was glad that he'd made a friend. paps...didn't have it easy when it came to the friend department._

_"Hello! My name is Ariel! Are you Papyrus' brother? You have a cool jacket."_

_when the two of them came bounding into the room, i remember the feeling of dread wash over me._

_"hey kiddo," i said, "i'm sans."_

_i remember them bouncing on their toes, beaming as brightly as my bro. he was still holding their hand._

_"CAN I SHOW HER MY ACTION FIGURES?"_

_"sure, why don't you bring them down?"_

_"SURE! STAY HERE, ARIEL!" letting go of their hand, paps rushed upstairs. i could hear clattering and banging as my bro tried to pick the best toys to show off to his new friend._

_the human had blinked down at me as i pulled myself into a sitting position. "Are you a big brother or a little brother?" she asked, "I have a brother too, but he's younger than I am."_

_"guess we have something in common, then."_

_her eyes turned downward. "I shouldn't have yelled at him or mom. I just got so mad 'cause mom blamed me when Gabe fell into the brambles. I didn't push him, honest! But I should have told him to be more careful. He's only five and still kind of dumb. He still eats dirt sometimes, and also glue, too."_

i'd been a kid at the time. did that excuse me? all i knew was that we needed the money.  it wasn't like i didn't know what would happen to the human. 

but...if i didn't report them, someone else would.

that was my justification.

 

 _when the human- no, when_ Ariel  _left, they grinned and told paps that they'd write him a letter once she got there._


End file.
